Gregory Parks, J.D., Ph.D.
Associate Dean of Research, Public Engagement, and Faculty Development | Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC, UNITED STATES
Parks is a clinical psychologist and lawyer who researches fraternities as well as the relationship between race, bias, and the law.
Biography
Gregory Parks pairs his legal expertise with his doctorate in clinical psychology, a combination that allows him to empirically investigate racial attitudes and biases and their connection to the law. His legal scholarship, which is informed by both cognitive and social psychology, explores social justice, civil rights, and black fraternal networks. He is a renowned expert on the social dynamics and legal repercussions of violent hazing in fraternities and sororities. Prior to teaching, Parks was a trial lawyer with the Washington, D.C. office of McDermott Will & Emery LLP. He previously clerked on the U.S. State Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit as well as the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Areas of Expertise (22)
Unconscious Bias
Social Science
Racism
Psychology
HBCU
Greek Life
Fraternal Networks
Empirical Research
Cognitive Psychology
Civil Rights
Black Fraternities
Bias
Civil Procedure
Clinical Psychology
Criminal Justice
Fraternities
Forensic Psychology
Hazing
Jury Selection
Race Law
Social Justice
Sororities
Media
Publications:
Documents:
Videos:
Audio/Podcasts:
Links (1)
Education (4)
Cornell Law School: J.D., Law 2008
University of Kentucky: Ph.D., Clinical Psychology 2004
Howard University: B.S., Psychology 1996
John Jay College of Criminal Justice: M.S., Forensic Psychology 1999
Affiliations (13)
- American Association of Law Schools
- American Bar Association
- American Constitution Society
- American Psychology-Law Society
- Law & Society Association
- National Bar Association
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
- Association for the Study of African American Life and History
- Association of Fraternity Advisors
- Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
- HazingPrevention.org
- North American Interfraternity Conference
Media Appearances (3)
Commentary: How to stop hazing: What colleges need to know (everyone else too)
Orlando Sentinel
2017-11-30
Rituals of hazing can be gruesome, sometimes deadly. Since 1970, there has been at least one hazing-related death on a college campus each year. To learn more about what’s being done to stop the practice, the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board contacted HazingPrevention.org, and sought out Gregory S. Parks, a law professor at Wake Forest University.
The Pledge
BBC World Service
2019-02-11
On college campuses across the United States, students die every year as a result of “hazing” - sometimes violent and dangerous rituals designed to initiate new members into a group to which they pledge loyalty.
How To Stop Hazing
NPR - 1A
2017-11-15
Once again, Greek life at American colleges is under scrutiny – this time after the death of a 20-year-old fraternity pledge at Florida State University. FSU has suspended Greek activities.
Articles (3)
Judicial Recusal: Cognitive Biases and Racial Stereotyping
NYU Law School Journal of Legislation & Public Policy
For generations, there had been strenuous resistance to the notion that judges are purely rational beings in their legal decision-making. In 1921, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo — who at the time was a judge on the New York Court of Appeals — agreed. Then, in 1930, legal realist Jerome Frank speculated that judicial decisions could reflect such mundane influences as what the judge ate for breakfast. A decade later, when Frank sat on the federal bench, he continued with this line of reasoning.
Asian American Fraternity Hazing: An Analysis of Community-Level Factors
UCLA Asian Pacific American Law Journal
When Asian-Americans began entering college during the early twentieth-century, they faced institutional barriers to full participation in college life. They were denied on-campus housing, access to scholarship funds, and entrance into fraternal organizations, which included written exclusionary policies prohibiting any nonwhite and non-Christian membership. Faced with these exclusions, Asian American men and women founded their own fraternal organizations as spaces to provide social support, camaraderie, resources, and ties to the broader ethnic community.
Judging Racism
Cardozo Law Review de novo
The article addresses the fairly recent incident where the Chief U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Montana forwarded a racist e-mail about President Obama that was picked up by the media. When questioned about it, he indicated that though he knew the e-mail to be racist, he was not a racist. The article investigates the accuracy of his assertion, largely through the lens of implicit (subconscious) race bias research from the fields of social and cognitive psychology.
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